nd of the soul of the communicant. The
two are distinct; the one may not accompany the other; but they may, and
often do, accompany each other. The parent should bring his child in
faith to the Lord's baptism, the same as the communicant should come in
faith to the Lord's Supper. The communion of the Lord's Supper is the
act of a professed member of Christ's visible Church; the receiving of
the Lord's baptism, is receiving the seal of membership in Christ's
visible Church, that "mark of difference whereby Christians are
distinguished from others that are not baptized." Hence in the Wesleyan
catechism, the question is asked,--

What are the privileges of baptized persons? The answer is,--They
are made members of the visible church of Christ; their gracious
relation to Him as the Second Adam, and as the Mediator of the New
Covenant, is solemnly ratified by divine appointment; and they are
thereby recognized as having a claim to all the spiritual blessings
of which they are the proper subjects.

I maintain, therefore, that the language of our Articles of Faith and
Catechism, as well as of our Baptismal Service and the writings of Mr.
Wesley, explicitly declares baptism an act of the Church by which it
receives the children baptized into its bosom--that all baptized
children are truly members of Christ's visible Church, although they be
not communicants in it until they personally profess the Faith of their
Baptism, and evince their desire to flee from the wrath to come by the
negative and positive proofs so briefly and fully enumerated in the
General Rules of our societies.

The Church membership of baptized children is known to be the doctrine
of all parties in the Church of England, as well as of Mr. Wesley. It is
equally the doctrine of all sections of the Presbyterian Church, in
which the baptized children are regarded as members of the Church, but
not communicants until they make a personal profession of conversion,
and receive a token or ticket of admission to the Lord's Supper. On this
point it is sufficient to cite the following passages from the fifteenth
chapter of the fourth book of Calvin's Institutes.

Baptism is a sign of initiation, by which we are admitted into the
society of the Church, in order that being incorporated into
Christ, we may be numbered among the children of God.... For as
circumcision was a pledge to the Jews, by which they were assured